Vodafone complaints

baldelectrician

I had similar issues with Vodafarce. :mad:

They used to do the swap out on consumer and business contracts, but now only offer it on business (and seem to pick and choose when they apply it)

On a similar note, I am back with Orange and was on holiday in Devon last week. Orange had 2 sites down in the area and I had to buy a three payg sim (my mate had a 3 phone and the signal was excellent). I have an unlocked phone as a spare, and used this to divert my incoming Orange calls to

Orange credited the £10 to help towards the signal issues and the cost of the sim and £10 top up
My Orange contract phone went faulty (E71) and I called Orange at 10pm, they sent a replacement phone to the CARAVAN PARK I was staying at and their courier called ahead to have me meet him at the reception
This is on a CONSUMER contract with £6.00 insurance.

That's service. :T

Things do go wrong (like having 2 masts out of the 3 in the area down) but it's how you deal with any issues that matter

missforlani

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I'm moving to China in a couple of weeks and decided to phone Vodafone well in advance to see what my options were. They informed me that I had to pay £350 to terminate my contract (2 year contract which I'm about 18 months into) so I said no don't cancel it, I can't afford to pay that. So that was fine.

A month or so later my phone stops working and I can't figure out why. So I phone them up and they've cancelled my contract when I specifically asked them not to!!!:mad: So I asked if there would be a fee for that and they said yes so I told them to reinstate my contract, I received no apology for the mistake or anything.

Then about 2 months later I look at my bank account and find a lot of money missing. Check my statement and Vodafone had taken £360 out of my account as a cancellation fee, when I've already told them TWICE I didn't want to cancel my contract as I couldn't afford the lump sum. So phoned them up to find out what on earth they were doing again no apology, oh you'll have to go and do an indemnity claim at the bank. Fine. I asked them if I could freeze my contract as I'm only moving to China for the year. But they're not budging, obviously I signed the contract but i didn't know when I signed it that I was going to be leaving the country! I also have had a few bills that have been over £200 so I would've thought they might have reduced the cancellation fee even, but no.

I'm going to be on considerably less money when I'm in China and can't really afford to be paying my phone bill every month when I can't use it.

Vodafone customer service is shocking. Is there anything I can do to get out of this mess?

Thanks

ruggedtoast

Notsram wrote: »

You're not the only one. I've been in contact with Vodafone for the past 3 weeks, trying to get an answer out of them as to why I was misled over my internet package, and why I wasn't sent a contract to enable me to find this out till it was too late to cancel. They have at least replied to all of my emails, but not one of their replies has even attempted to address my queries.

Ditto exactly.

Nothing from my last mail to them.

In essence I was sold 2 contracts with 1 gig of internet with a soft cap fup. I ended up with one 1gig hard cap and one 500mb soft cap. They, eventually, agreed to swap these around but neither are what I wanted or were sold.

I have suggested to VF that I will consider the matter resolved if they agree to refund me any months I am charged £5 for going over their arbitrary limit.

I think this is reasonable and proportionate, especially considering the amounts of time I have spent trying to resolve their mistake.

Nothing from them however. VF Company representative can you help with this? Dozens of emails and phone calls now and I get nowhere.

All I want is the option to be able to use about 1 gig of internet in any one month without being charged for straying a bit over.

I was promised this numerous times and confirmed that was what I had but its not so.

ntronic

Hi,
I was wondering if anybody could help.
Last June, I called Vodafone to request a PAC code. I subsequently received a call from their retentions department and after a good deal of haggling was offered a new phone with 600 minutes + unlimited text and Internet for £25 a month on a 12 month contract. I agreed to this but didnt receive any paperwork confirming the same.
I called once agin within a few days and was told that I was now on an 18 month contract and when I threatened to cancel within the 14 day cooling off period I was assured that this would be updated to 12 months on my account.
I decided to leave it that but looks like that was a BIG MISTAKE. I called them up today assuming that my 12 months were up to ask for a PAC code and the lady I spoke to informed me that I was on an 18 monther so would either have to cough up for terminating early or wait until December.
I certainly only agreed for a 12 months but she claimed there was no note of that on my account and said she couldnt do anything about it.
I wish to make a formal complaint with Ofcom to investigate the issue but wanted some advice on how to proceed with the matter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

groeit

After a few years of being a customer of Telefonica O2 I moved to Vodafone at the end of 2009 because of Nokia N900 phone availability and the Vodafone Passport bundle.
As I am using my phone quite a lot I chose the £45 plan to go with the phone I purchased.
The phone wasn't sent to me till end of December, but Vodafone didn't bill me for November period so I thought 'thats OK'.

I was led to believe I bought into a 12 month contract. I've found out later it was not true, and the contract was in fact for 24 months. I also thought that's not a problem for me.

Since January till today (4th of August) I have received 2 bills for my phone calls. Every month my bill exceeds 100s of pounds and I've found out recently that I have been overcharged
from the very beginning (text messages and international calls were being charged at wrong rate). When I tried disputing my bill before it always came back from Vodafone as 'correct'
which it obviously wasn't.

My phone was cut off twice since opening of my contract even thou I asked for the bill to be sent to my house so I can re-confirm the amount fore I part with the money.
On top of that I cannot log in online to check my bill; I've been told on several occasions that 'system is down at the moment'. I was also charged for putting my phone back online.
Being sold the premium insurance is another area which I would like to complain about. Sales people don't know what they are selling and when asked ANY question they reply with a 'yes' only to
sign a customer up for a premium insurance.

During this time I made tens of calls to customer services only to hear that i'm wrong, and to have phone put down on me on several occasions.

Only one of your customer representatives was helpful so far.

I don't see any other option but to have this case investigated by Ofcom as my phone, once again, is not working and is affecting my business.

waltergropius

groeit wrote: »

After a few years of being a customer of Telefonica O2 I moved to Vodafone at the end of 2009 because of Nokia N900 phone availability and the Vodafone Passport bundle.
As I am using my phone quite a lot I chose the £45 plan to go with the phone I purchased.
The phone wasn't sent to me till end of December, but Vodafone didn't bill me for November period so I thought 'thats OK'.

I was led to believe I bought into a 12 month contract. I've found out later it was not true, and the contract was in fact for 24 months. I also thought that's not a problem for me.

Since January till today (4th of August) I have received 2 bills for my phone calls. Every month my bill exceeds 100s of pounds and I've found out recently that I have been overcharged
from the very beginning (text messages and international calls were being charged at wrong rate). When I tried disputing my bill before it always came back from Vodafone as 'correct'
which it obviously wasn't.

My phone was cut off twice since opening of my contract even thou I asked for the bill to be sent to my house so I can re-confirm the amount fore I part with the money.
On top of that I cannot log in online to check my bill; I've been told on several occasions that 'system is down at the moment'. I was also charged for putting my phone back online.
Being sold the premium insurance is another area which I would like to complain about. Sales people don't know what they are selling and when asked ANY question they reply with a 'yes' only to
sign a customer up for a premium insurance.

During this time I made tens of calls to customer services only to hear that i'm wrong, and to have phone put down on me on several occasions.

Only one of your customer representatives was helpful so far.

I don't see any other option but to have this case investigated by Ofcom as my phone, once again, is not working and is affecting my business.

I've also had problems with my business phone from Vodafone. The lesser of my issues is that I was unable to access my online account for some time to check bills etc. I emailed Vodafone at one point but they were utterly useless. I tried emailing again some time later and they were even worse. After several emails, none of which helped me in any way whatsoever, the representative told me that my account had been deleted as per my request - I made no such request!! He then acknowledged that this was a mistake and told me that he would pass my issue onto a colleague, who would reinstate my account. I have not had any contact from Vodafone since and still have no online account.

However, the worse of my issues is that, ever since beginning my contract about 18 months ago, certain people have been unable to connect to my phone when they try to call me - they just get a recorded message suggesting that they try sending me a message instead! These people include my mother and several of my biggest clients. Bearing in mind that this is a business plan, it goes without saying that this should have been resolved by now. I have emailed and phoned Vodafone on several occasions and the response is invariably completely and utterly useless. I am told to try turning the handset off then on again, take the battery out then put it back in again, remove the sim card and blow on it then put it back in again, switch the phone from 3G to 2G and see if that works (I'm paying for a 3G phone, for what that's worth). The best suggestion from Vodafone has been to take the handset to my local Vodafone shop, which I have not found the time to do yet, such is my hectic schedule of running a business (common sense alert, I'm on a business plan). What are they going to do in the shop anyway? Turn it off then on again? Remove the sim card and blow on it? I should not have to waste my company time running around getting people to fix what should have worked in the first place. They should send me a courtesy handset so that I can use that while the faulty handset is sent to them to be fixed.

I find Vodafone's attitude idiotic and downright offensive - especially considering that I am on a business plan. What exactly is the point of a business plan, dare I ask? It is astonishing that Vodafone place so little value on customer retention. I too will be lodging a complaint with them as soon as I can muster up the motivation to put up with yet more of their thoroughly incompetent representatives.

groeit

Well I spoke with Vodafone today, and they said that my number is an o2 one and not theirs!! How can they be billing me every month then?
That's just ridiculous! I think i'll just go with three, and when vodafone will come to me to collect any payments I'll show them the email I got from vodafone saying that the number is with o2.

ntronic

One week on and still getting nowhere. Even the Vodafone reps on this forum dont seem bothered.

Just written to Ofcom so will wait and see what they come back with. I'll post back on the forum so that others in a similar situation may know what to do.

My advice:
DO NOT UPGRADE WITH THESE SCAMSTERS!!
They will offer you the world to make you stay when your contract is up. But then you end up finding out that the plan you're actually on is different and magically they have no record of any such deal being offered.

As soon as your contract is up get your PAC and join O2 or Orange who aren't perfect but at least have some level of customer service.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Symeon_2

Hi All
Just wanted to share a very "pleasant" Vodafone customer experience. Back in March 09 my existing Vodafone contract was about to finish so I decided I want to extend it. I was given a good deal of 600min & unlimited texts for £20 a month. My contract is about to end in September 2010 and about a week ago I have discovered that in July I was charged £34 for line rental alone!!!!! So I called Vodafone and have been told that I was on a discount that runs out 3 months before the end of the contract. I replied that no one told me so, when I extended my contract in March 09. Vodafone agent said it is in my written contract. So I said I think it is unfair that they did told me so over the phone when I extended my contract and finished the conversation as she could not be of further help. I then found my contract read it thoroughly and it does not state anywhere (incl. small print) that my discount is temporary. I called Vodafone again and said that my contract does not state – discount is temporary. They told me that it says so on the Internet!!!! And offered me my discount back provided I extended my contract again. I said that I go by what I have been told and what is in my written contract and not by what is on the internet, also I said I want my discount back for the last 3 months but after this experience I do not wish to extend my contract. The agent advised me to go to my nearest store and show them contract. So I did. At the Vodafone store they could not find anything in my contract that states – discount is temporary. They also said they cannot help me, they have had a lot customers with the same problem and advised me to take Vodafone to court!!!!! In addition I used Vodafone online form to complain and requested what is my desired solution (i.e. keep the discount without extension of my contract as originally agreed over the phone in March 09 and as per contract) and they never responded to me. Any advise on what shall I do before I actually take them to court will be greatly appreciated? Is complaining to OFT a good idea?


Thanks
Szymon

ruggedtoast

The customer service at Vodafone is abysmal. They will say anything to get you to sign up, and anything to get you off the phone. Getting written confirmation is difficult. Call them and lodge an official complaint. If they don't follow that up to your satisfaction then you can take it up with OTEL.